Socialist Party of America

The Socialist Party of America was a socialist political party that existed in the United States from 1901 to 1972. The party was founded by trade unionists, progressive social reformers, populist farmers, and immigrants, and the party refused to form coalitions with other parties or to allow for its members to vote for other parties. Socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs won over 900,000 votes in the 1912 and 1920 presidential elections, Victor L. Berger and Meyer London were elected to the US House of Representatives, and the party would spawn dozens of state legislators, over a hundred mayors, and countless lesser officials. The party's opposition to World War I led to its decline, and the popularity of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal program and the rising power of Communist Party USA during the 1930s led to the Socialist Party losing support. By 1956, the party stopped running presidential candidates, and the party split into smaller groups in 1972.